Something new for us

This year we've decided to do Classical Conversations as part of the kids' schooling, and yesterday was our first day. It was a great experience for us all.... Basically it's a program for a bunch of kids (I think there are about 90 in the part we were in) that meets from 9-1 on Wednesdays. During the week we all have a study guide to go through, and then on Wednesdays we get together to go over the material, and learn some new things. After a 20-minute assembly for everyone, the kids all break up into their individual classrooms by age group and meet with their teachers for the next few hours.

Strider, of course, completely loved it and almost hasn't stopped talking about his first day for the last 24 hours. He is in a class with 8 other boys his age - -- a whole class of just boys -- and 2 of them were his good friends, so he was excited to go. They did all kinds of games and experiments, etc., and each week each student will be doing a presentation on one of the 50 states, so that should prove interesting.

And Rayna had a great time, too, and actually did better than I thought she might. The class she is in does all the same material as the other classes, so even the Kindergarteners are learning Latin words, English grammar definitions (yesterday's was all about what an "infinitive" is), science terminology (yesterday's was about the cell and the 4 types of tissue in the human body), American history, geography (the names and capitals of the 50 states) and Timeline cards. So for 2.5 hours she (mostly) paid attention and tried to participate in all the activities. She will tell you that the coloring sheets and snack time were her favorite parts, though. :)

My favorite part is that 5 of the families involved are friends of ours from church, so I'm going to enjoy getting to see them every week, and it will be fun to have our kids all learning together. Plus, I guess I'm going to get to learn a bunch, too, because I certainly do not know all these English grammar definitions, science questions, or Latin words!